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The runners are made with handwoven fabric on a back-strap loom.
The Backstrap
loom. Before
the Conquest it was women who made
all the clothing for themselves and their
families on the back strap loom. The loom is called, in Spanish,
palos
(sticks)
or sometimes telar de palitos (loom of little sticks). It is also
known as telar de cinta (literally, belt loom). The
back strap loom has no fixed parts and
only becomes a loom when it is strung with the warp threads that will be woven
into cloth. Its permanents parts consists merely of five essential sticks and
the belt which passes behind the weaver when the loom is in use.
On the telar de cinta, the end beams hold the warp threads under tension in a very simple manner. If the weaver wishes a textile finished on all four sides, she attaches a strong cord to each of the end beams and passes her warp around this cord at both ends, rather than around the beams. The loom is attached by rope to a house post or a tree and the other end is held by the back strap. With the strap around her hips, the weaver may kneel, sit on her haunches, sit on the ground with legs stretched out in front, or even, although rarely, stand up.